Phil Geothermal Inc set to complete Makban drilling

BAY, Laguna – The Philippine Geothermal Inc. (PGI) is expected to complete its drilling program for the Makiling-Banahaw geothermal power plant next month.

In a press briefing here, PGI senior drilling engineer Phil T. Naïve said the drilling program involves six wells – Bulalo 104 to 109. The program started in August 2002 and will be completed by June 2003.

Naïve said for the last well the company will use a new technology called multilateral drilling. This will allow PGI to dig at a cheaper cost. Multilateral wells are new generation wells wherein the company could drill wells from already existing wells by having two or more production legs beneath it.

The average cost of drilling a well using the old method is about $2.5 million. Using the multilateral technology, a well will cost only about $1.2 million to drill.

The company has spent about $20 million for the six wells and one multilateral well.

The 2002-2003 drilling program will involve 10-13 make-up wells, which are normally deeper than the usual wells with a depth reaching 9,000 to 10,000 feet.

According to Naïve, the drilling project aims to provide additional steam that will support the demand of the Makban power plants the rehabilitation of which is expected to be completed by January 2005.

"The rehabilitation project and the drilling program will increase the installed capacity of the Makban power plants to 402 megawatts (MW).